by Sean Fisher, Cincinnati, Ohio on 07.31.07
According to a recent report in Forbes, the amount of driving we do back and forth is killing us...literally. From breathing air polluted with diesel particulates and other nasty pollutants to fatalities occurred in private automobiles, Forbes suggests that many of us are placing health far behind priorities such as McMansions, big box shopping, and congested commutes. Forbes compiled statistics from the American Lung Association's air pollution monitoring, average U.S. traffic delays from the Texas Transportation Institute, and U.S. per-capital car fatalities from the U.S Department of Transportation to find out what U.S. cities were most dangerous to drive in. Their results? Surprise, surprise...Southern California ruled the list. Both Riverside, California and Los Angeles were in the top three, separated by only Atlanta, Georgia. So, what is deemed the answer for this rising health problem? Public transportation and carpooling.
Of course, increased use of public transportation and carpooling takes enough cars off the road to reduce bad-news air particulates. However, public transportation in particular can help you avoid much of the pollution we breath in on our commutes to and from work.
According to the Forbes article:
Ultra-fine particulate matter has been linked with premature death, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness, according to the California Air Resources Board. Though it takes Americans an average of 25 minutes to drive to work, according to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau figures, the board estimates that over 50% of a person's daily exposure to ultra-fine particles can occur during a commute.

An invigorating, purposeful, passionate discourse and dialogue focused and facilitated by East Cleveland Councilwoman and Champion Barbara Thomas transpired this past Monday.   The meeting was convened at Apethrope Apartments, just one block from the Superior rapid station and was attended by several local dignitaries, including local pastors, former mayor Saratha Goggins, Cuyahoga County's Board of Health's Annie Stahlheber and several members of police and sheriff's departments (Officers Michael Jackson, Lieutenant McKloskey, and  Officer Stanton respectively). Of course RealNEO represented well, with Norm Roulet presenting our transformative vision for a new East Cleveland via revitalization and transmutation of the Hough Bakery Building – now renamed the Star Complex – near Lakeview and Euclid.  I was able to announce administration of a revamp of a computer donation, collection, and distribution program REALNEO stars envisioned prior to site inception and orchestrated last year.

Some good news for my neighborhood-the Treadway Creek Project is off-the-ground and recycling may be coming back to the City of Cleveland thanks to the efforts of Councilwoman Donna Brady.

Smart/wise

Sunday, July 29th, 2007 8:21pm

Following are images of the concepts which were received by Sally Levine and David Ellison for the reuse of the Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower in Cleveland Ohio.  I extend my appreciation to the designers for their generous dedication and creativity.  I will endeavor to number each of the entries  so that comments can be directed to  specific designs.  I will also  try to make legible the text which is important on many.  A submission from Italy was especially poignant in its text.   Designers, please feel free to log in and amplify your presentations.   This is very cool that so much volunteer creativity went into this event.   Here's my hoping that all the designers who contributed will reap a referred commission or two from their contributions....

I found this site today: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=97396

    There is a good opinion piece by County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones regarding the proposed county sales tax hike in today's PLAIN DEALER  

How and why do film and video production decision get made? A film trade group recently asked those questions, and the answers are not encouraging for Ohio, which continues to say “no” to the adoption of production incentives that other states now consider routine.

Norm and Evelyn are forging ahead in East Cleveland.  Little House on the Prairie has nothing on these guys. 

You can find a good letter from Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins regarding the quartercent tax hike proposed by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Hagan and Dimora on Brewed Fresh Daily here.  (Dead Link) >On 2/17/09 I noticed the link to BFD was dead. Here is the letter in PDF in its entirety graciously supplied by the author and posted to Realneo on 2/18/09 by JB

My neighbor has a spectacular garden with over 600 varieties of Day Lillies.  Yes, the blooms only last for one day, withering and falling off by tomorrow.  

There are many points regarding the proposed medical mart that still don't make sense for me, so I want to post this quick note...

1) At some level, the proposal is an effort to shift some marketing infrastructure, and perhaps some inventory control, expenses of some private companies to the public sector. So what are the current costs for those activities by the affected private sector and why don't we start with that as an amount that the private sector should be required to start with in estimating ways of allocating burdens? Otherwise, this isn't a partnership, it's a bail-out.

Third Federal will close it's downtown branch due to the decline in traffic.  Has any one on the Third Federal payroll noticed the orange barrels on Euclid?

If the world hasn't caught on yet, some of the ideas I presented this weekend as exhibitor during the Ingenuity Festival held here in Downtown Cleveland have caught the distinct attention of our Pope and President, among others.. and though Mr. Bush is now under the duress-caress of a legitimate censure threat he, like so many others has to know a great thing when he sees it.  Who doesn't ?  The key now is to work collaboratively and cross-sectionally to manifest those ideations and innovations particularly and proactively preventative of Biblically-briefed, Catastrophe-causing and Armageddon-averting measures so we can assure a sustainable future for us all.  It is my belief we have five years until a pivotal time in history, and this is indeed a Messianic age - one which is facilitated by what spiritualist Eckhart Tolle and so many others refer to as the frequency holders (Findhorn Retreat)..   So perhaps polytheism returns, and we will all be gods ?   .   And as I jest, in part,  I am simultaneously serious - this isn't enigmatically expansive, or bucolic bipolar banter but rather real and rugged rapture we're talking about!

Could climate change herald mass migration?

"Sticking a straw in the Great Lakes is not a solution to Phoenix's water problems."
Robert Shibley, State University of New York at Buffalo.
Concerns raised as the U. S. Southwest grapples with historic drought, water supply depletion and the creeping sense that things can only get worse

Jul 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Murray Whyte
Staff Reporter
The state of Arizona has more than 300 golf courses, a booming economy, endless sunshine and, at last count, at least five Saks Fifth Avenue department stores — in short, nearly everything the well-heeled sybarite would need.

There’s just one thing missing: rain.

Ingenuity 2007 is done.

Thanks to James Levin and his staff at Ingenuity Fest 2007.  

The IngenuityFest public outreach efforts of Sally Levine  and David Ellison are intended to prevent Cuyahoga County from demolishing Cleveland’s Marcel Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower.    Ms. Levine and Mr. Ellison present a “Right vs Might” poster boy case of passionate public citizens who are “right” going up against “City Hall” “might”.   Except in this case it isn’t “City Hall”,   but “County Hall”.  

In geologic cadence Troika Ranch developed their dark on-stage anthropology.   Could also be a display of schizoid spousal personality disorder  - views in a mad house.  Womens' forearms definitely became homo erections;  stiletto pumps – maturing desire or just vertical ambulatory evolutionary expression?

Wednesday evening Cleveland State University’s Dance Program brought “Words Alive” to the Drinko Recital Hall at CSU.  Performers combined movement with music, or with dialogue.